flying pigs checking out a locat

Home of the Flying Pigs North Central Tennessee Chapter of the Flying Pigs QRP Club International.

After talking about locations for QRP operation at our local C.A.T.S. (Clarksville Amateur Transmitting Society) meeting we were approached by Dan Baker, N4GXE. Dan was interested in our QRP activity and had a great suggestion for our next outing, PILOT ROCK. I have heard of Pilot Rock from several persons in the radio club and they all talk about how many of the hams have done VHF work from that location. Now not being one to miss out on a good QRP location Lewis and I talked about checking to see if we wanted to work a QRP in the Field up on the ROCK.

Lewis has lived in the Clarksville area for many years and has visited Pilot Rock on more than one occasion. So with him at the wheel we are off and running to take a look. Pilot Rock is approximately 46 miles from Clarksville, near Hopkinsville Kentucky. If you Google Earth you can find it by a name search or punching in the coordinates 36-55-17.82 North and 87-17-12.21 West. If that fails you can Google Earth for Hopkinsville KY and Pilot Rock is just to the North East of that city. In Google Earth you can see a sunset from Pilot Rock by clicking on the "Sunset from Pilot Rock" view.

Moving right along we made our way to Hopkinsville Ky during the morning hours and only got lost one time, good job Lewis. Once we found the right road we were off and running. I just got settled in when Lewis pulled off the side of the road and said "Here we are!".

I got out of the truck and looked up the steep hill covered with brush and could just see some concrete steps going up into heavy brush. Ok, here we go. The first part of the climb was not bad but as we went up we noticed that the walkway was cluttered with trees and had overgrown with brush and poison ivy. Keep an eye out for the plants with three leaves.. ha ha

The second part of the climb was also cluttered with down trees and a big bolder that was sitting in a narrow walkway that I had to climb over to get to the top. Well Lewis decided to rest for a while and I moved on out up the hill to the top where the view was great. No wonder the fire tower was put here (the tower no longer is on the hill as it was damaged by a storm, then torn down by the Forrest Service). It is a great place to see for long distance and I think this will make a great place to work QRP. Now we just have to pack up all the gear, which is not all that heavy. It is the liquid refreshment that is heavy.... ha ha.. Check out the pictures and give it a thought to come visit this High Ground in Kentucky. Check out Google and look at the sunset. It will make you think..... What a good place to work QRP...